AMERICAN PHAROAH & THE HASKELL 2015

This is all treat, no trick let me tell you that!  On October 31, American Pharoah is looking to make history once again and I couldn't be more excited.  Although I can't be at the Breeders' Cup, I will still be cheering on Victor Espinoza and American Pharoah as they try to become the all-time earnings leader in Breeders' Cup history.  

In honor of this weeks happenings, I figured I would share some photos from when I went to the Haskell Invitational this summer.  Check out some of these photos when we got a chance to lay our eyes on the Triple Crown champ this summer at Monmouth Park.

NOTES OF NEIGHBORHOOD

I wanted to share with you some awesome sights that I see around my neighborhood on a daily basis.  Everything is so beautiful, especially during this time of the year so enjoy these!

INDIAN SUMMER

As the days where the sky looks like this wont last much longer, you have to take the time to enjoy it.   I get so happy when we're lucky enough to have an Indian Summer like this, 75-ish degrees in October! 

LUNCH TIME | CAFE COLETTE

I recently stopped at Cafe Colette in Williamsburg Brooklyn for lunch.  I have to be honest, I don't get to Brooklyn often so as I was presented with so many lunch/brunch choices upon exiting the subway, it was a little difficult to pick something.  I was happy I chose Cafe Colette and here's why.

QUEEN JOAQUIN | STYLE

Cardigan | Dress (sim) | Shoes | Watch

THE LIEBSTER AWARD

Good evening everyone and I hope that you've had a great weekend.  I am so thankful to have been nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Hannah and Sara over at The Perfect Storm! Thank you so much girls, so sweet.  They run a blog together all about life, style, food and more so go ahead and check it out when you get a chance. 

Check out my answers to the questions, here:

Step Lightly | My Favorite Rain Boots

So as I'm sure most of the world knows, the East Coast is bracing for yet another hard hitting storm called Joaquin.  The weather around here at the Jersey Shore has been nothing short of rainy and windy and we are all bracing for some intense flooding.  After Sandy, there's not much we can't handle around here but there has already been some crazy stuff going on weather wise.

When it's raining,  I always like to make sure I'm prepared with some shoes that are comfortable, functional and cute at the same time.  Trust me, it's the key to staying dry, warm and happy.  I have found just that in these Michael Kors booties.  I have a pair of Helly Hansens that I wear all the time as well, but these booties match with absolutely everything!  If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen that I wore them today.  

The Helly Hansens I have are also bright pink, not as professional as these are. These shoes are easily transition-able and not uncomfortable to walk around in. Before I had originally bought these I had my mind set on rain booties instead of boots anyway, so when I found them I was very happy. I like the bootie style because it is much more wearable with any outfit both in and outside of the office.

What kind of shoes do you favor wearing when it's raining or snowing to beat the band outside?  Where are you reading from, are you in the path of Joaquin?  I hope you're all safe.  Thank you for reading and be sure to send me a tweet with your favorite rain boots.  

Affordable Halloween Tray Decor | DIY

So it is officially October and Halloween is just around the corner.  The house that I currently live in is one that last year, had the best Halloween decorations in the neighborhood (we moved in after Halloween).  I really have been trying to encourage the rest of my family to keep that tradition going but no one seems as enthusiastic about it as I do.  That's okay!  I am usually the only festive one in the household by default.  I decided to start decorating for the season and this is the first evidence of that.  Fun fact about everything used in this little DIY (except the Scotch Washi Tape)?  It was (almost) all from the Dollar Spot at Target!  Let me get started and show you how I arranged everything!

Where To Find Me

I sincerely hope you've all been enjoying the relaunch of Heard It Through The Irvine!  I am so thankful for all of the support and love from my friends and family over the past week.  It has been absolutely wonderful.  Is there anything specific you would want to see me write about?  Let me know in the comments!  I have some excellent new stuff coming up so be sure to stay tuned!  Here's where to find me on all social media so you know what's new, first:

Facebook: Heard It Through The Irvine

Twitter: @britatheardit

Instagram: @hearditthroughtheirvine

Beachy Vibes

This summer was absolutely beautiful and I am so thankful for that.  I wanted to share a couple of scenes from the beach with you that I just cherish so much.  I love spending my free time in the sand, the water and just relaxing.  For me, the beach is more than just a place to get a tan, it's a place for reflection.  It's a place for serenity.

How To: Get The Most Out of Your Workout

I HATE working out, hate it.  No matter how much I do hate it, I have to do it.  There are a couple of things that I do know about it thought, and those things are what keep me motivated to keep doing it.

Confused?  Let me get started with a few spots of wisdom that I've learned about working out.

How To Find A Mentor

It's no secret, I've said it before.  My relationship with my father is second-to-none.  There is no one in this world that I would rather look to for advice, confide in or share my family time with!  I look to my father for all of the guidance in life.  He has acted as both parents for my entire life, even when my parents were still married and for that I am forever thankful.  I definitely consider him my mentor for life.  

As a student and young professional, I have witnessed and have heard of a lot of my friends talking about how they have had business mentors and relationships.  It was something that I thought I was missing out on and I thought it was something to be ashamed of/scared about.  Let me tell you why.  For some reason, the idea of having a mentor never really crossed my mind.  Like I described, I always confided in my father for most of my decisions and for any questions I had.  So when all of a sudden friends of mine started discussing professional mentors/people in their field that they could look up to, I thought I had missed out on something amazing.  I thought there was a possibility that I could lose myself in my own world.  

Not only this, but I thought not having a mentor was going to stifle my own growth in my field.  I thought not knowing anyone that I could directly report to with questions or queries would really hurt me. I was honestly more 'FOMO' than anything, but this just fueled me to think about mentors and mentoring as a whole.  

I figured out, over the course of my high school/college years that if you don't have a mentor, it's okay.  Why?  Here are a couple of reasons:

Putting Yourself First

It's hard to think about how to put yourself first.  It actually took me a long time to understand how to completely do it.  Not so long ago, I wrote a blog post about how to be unapologetically yourself and I felt like in that post, I was able to get a lot of off of my chest.  It felt amazing, cathartic actually.  This, I guess you could say, is the second installment to that certain blog post.

Simple Floral Spring Decor

I've become re-obsessed with Plain T from Eataly and I haven't been able to get enough lately.  Whenever I can get a chance to stop in there and pick one up, I always do.  I couldn't help but think about what I can do with the bottles because to me they are just so pretty.  I know the tea is bottled in the Hamptons so this summer I'm hoping to maybe go see where they bottle it.  

So I came up with this adorable little craft idea in the meantime until I can do something even better.  It's really simple to do and very inexpensive because all you need to do is purchase the flowers that you want for the bottle turned vase.  I got these springy flowers because they just made me so happy and made me think of warmer weather (which thank god we are seeing more of these days).

First you're going to make sure you clean out the bottles really well.  Once you've done that, you're going to also want to make sure you add enough water and the plant food in BEFORE you place the flowers in.  I made this mistake so I wanted to make sure I shared it with you.

These are the flowers that I chose.  They are so simple and beautiful and just scream spring to me.

I also ended up using all but one of the dozen flowers that I got for ONE tea bottle, so if you want to make sure you have enough for one bottle, get two dozen flowers.  I think they came out so simply adorable.  This is perfect decor for spring without being too Eastery or overboard. 

What do you think?  How do you decorate for spring?  Send me some tweets and let me know! -Brit.

New Year, New MINDSET.

5 Things for 2015

Tbqh, I don't really know where to start with this.  I have been thinking about this blog post for a long time, but I didn't want to start writing it until December 31.  I just feel like this is such a reflective day and to begin writing it anytime before then is just not right.  Thinking about and planning it in my head is one thing, but to literally take my hands to my keyboard and begin typing is another.  I did not want to do so until now.  

I also grappled with whether or not I actually wanted to even write this post.  I still don't really know how open I'm really going to be with it.  There's really something about letting people into the depths of my life that scares the shit out of me and I know a lot of people feel the same way.  Just know that I am certainly not judging you for having that feeling.  With that said, let's get started.

Being that I started this post with 'internet jargon,' that might be a subtle clue as to how I feel about 2014.  Can you feel the tone of this already?  I sure can.  It was the shittiest year I think I have ever had in my entire life.  Even when my parents got divorced in 2006 and when I have almost died multiple times in the hands of my mother as she drove us around drunk as kids were better than this.  I'm getting a bit ridiculous here and I don't mean to be morbid, but it's true.  So rather than celebrating a new year coming along, I am mainly celebrating the departure of this one.

So with that being said, lets get this thing going.

I
 I really am looking to lean on my friends this year for the support that I NEED to make 2015 the best year that I have ever had.  I am willing to admit, finally, that I don't really make my feelings known and that is what has contributed to being the death of me this past year.  I have my best friend to thank for this.  I've never had someone in my life like Ally.  Although we've been friends for a while, this year, she really helped me realize something: I ALWAYS have a wall up.  I need to let that down and depend on my friends who are here to help me, not just excuse my feelings because I feel like I'm a burden.  I'm not a burden, I just have a wall up.

II
I cannot wait to make myself the happiest person I have ever been, career-wise, this year.  All I have ever wanted, since I was a little girl, was to be successful in a career and I am BEYOND stoked to make this happen.  Career of my dreams in the city of my dreams, coming right up!

III
My family is stronger than ever but there are things that can use improvement.  I always influence my brother in many different ways but I hope that this year, I can persuade him to spend more time with us.  He's been doing better with it recently but being that I have such a small family, I try my best to make sure that I spend AS MUCH time with them as possible.

IV
I want to eat better.  I don't really know how many promises that I can make but I just want to eat waaaaaay better than I have been for the past couple of months.  I did so well and lost a TON of weight about two years ago and then life happened and I gained ALL of it back.  Imagine losing 60-ish pounds and gaining it all back after all that hard work.  Eating right is going to be the first step of doing this because my eating habits have ridiculously gone to complete shit.

V
I don't want to make anything concrete or say anything with confidence, but I want to exercise a WHOLE LOT MORE.  Reason for this?  It's the perfect coupling with eating right and I used to be so keen on running all the time and I just never do it anymore.  I even have a gym membership that I pay for and never go to!  Im convinced thats definitely how those gyms make their money.

Lastly I would like to just include something positive because I feel like often people only state negatives, things they want to change about themselves, or resolutions.  I am so proud of my strength and focus this year.  I have been thrown a PLETHORA of curve balls and my ability to try and remain focused and strong has been enough to show everyone what kind of person I am.

These couple of things are among many others that I want to accomplish this coming year.  Lets not call them resolutions but goals, for sure.  Being that I have been writing this throughout the day, I have finally finished.  I've been opening and closing my laptop multiple times at multiple hours and have been thinking about some of the things I've wanted to include.  I specifically haven't listed ANY blog goals because I have some plans.  What do you want to see happen in your life this year?  Tweet me your goals for the year or comment them below.  Perhaps we can stir up some inspiration.  -Brit.